First 3D Image of Ultima Thule Released from NASA’s New Horizons Flyby, Moon Search Ongoing

Ultima Thule in 3D: The New Horizons science team created the first stereo image pair of Ultima Thule. This image can be viewed with stereo glasses to reveal the Kuiper Belt object's three-dimensional shape. The images that created the stereo pair were taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 4:23 and 5:01 Universal Time on January 1, 2019 from respective ranges of 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) and 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers), with respective original scales of 1017 feet (310 meters) and 459 feet (140 meters) per pixel. The science team released this image at the Jan. 3, 2019 media briefing at JHU APL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Ken Kremer  --SpaceUpClose.com & RocketSTEM –3 January 2019

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERISTY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY, LAUREL, MD – Scientists leading NASA’s New Horizons mission released the first 3D image of Ultima Thule at a media briefing today, Thursday, Jan 3. after the spacecraft successfully zoomed close by during a history making encounter on New Year’s Day.  

Meanwhile the team announced that the search for potential moons is ongoing at the farthest and most primitive solar system object ever explored up close by a spaceship from Earth.

Ultima Thule - which means “beyond the borders of the known world” is a Kuiper Belt object orbiting more than 4 billion miles away from the sun!

The stereoscopic image gives a very good sense of the three-dimensional structure of Ultima Thule which was revealed to “look like a snowman” and discovered to be a contact binary- the most distant ever explored.

Ultima Thule in 3D: The New Horizons science team created the first stereo image pair of Ultima Thule. This image can be viewed with stereo glasses to reveal the Kuiper Belt object's three-dimensional shape. The images that created the stereo pair were taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 4:23 and 5:01 Universal Time on January 1, 2019 from respective ranges of 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) and 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers), with respective original scales of 1017 feet (310 meters) and 459 feet (140 meters) per pixel.  Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

You need to whip out and wear a pair of Red-Cyan 3D anaglyph glasses to properly view the image and experience the 3D effect. 

New Horizons science team led by PI Alan Stern sport 3D glasses to view 1^st stereo image of Ultima Thule in 3D created from LORRI camera images shortly before New Year’s Day flyby- at the Jan. 3, 2019 media briefing at JHU APL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

In additional researchers announced that no moons than 1 mile and within about 100 miles or atmosphere has been discovered thus far in the very limited number of images transmitted back to Earth across the vastness of 4.1 Billion miles (6.6 Billion km) of interplanetary space. 

But researchers are continuing the moon and ring search and its still possible moons may exist further away than 100 miles, said Mark Showalter, New Horizons team member. 

If they find a moon then researchers will be able to accurately determine the mass and density of Ultima Thule with great precision- something not possible at the moment.

All told New Horizons gathered some 50 GB of data in the form of science and research measurements as it flew past Ultima Thule during closest approach just past midnight Tuesday shortly after the dawn of New Year’s Day 2019 at 12:33 a.m. EST.

Mission scientists, invited guests and the media including Space UpClose were on hand to witness the groundbreaking flyby events first hand as they unfolded at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL), in Laurel, MD all through the encounter period which ended today.

Check out our gallery of on site images from JHU APL throughout the flyby and close encounter period.

‘What a week it has been so far. The first exploration of a small Kuiper Belt object and the most distant exploration of any world in history is now history, but almost all of the data analysis lies in the future," said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, at today’s final post flyby media briefing held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL), in Laurel, MD.

“As of today New Horizons spacecraft has already journeyed over 3 million miles deeper into the Kuiper Belt.”

“The last flyby operations at Ultima Thule have been completed. We have started new observations of other Kuiper Belt Objects ahead.”

The 3 D image was created from a stereo pair taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 4:23 and 5:01 Universal Time on January 1, 2019 from respective ranges of 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) and 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers), with respective original scales of 1017 feet (310 meters) and 459 feet (140 meters) per pixel, said the team.

The team also released an animated GIF based on the two images taken 38 minutes apart. The smaller "Thule" lobe is closest to the New Horizons spacecraft. As Ultima Thule is seen to rotate, hints of the topography can be perceived, notes the team.

In this animated GIF of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule made from two images taken 38 minutes apart, the "Thule" lobe is closest to the New Horizons spacecraft. As Ultima Thule is seen to rotate, hints of the topography can be perceived. The images were taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 4:23 and 5:01 Universal Time on January 1, 2019 from respective ranges of 38,000 miles (61,000 kilometers) and 17,000 miles (28,000 kilometers), with respective original scales of 1017 feet (310 meters) and 459 feet (140 meters) per pixel. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Dr. Brain May, Queen lead guitarist also plays a science role in the mission as a New Horizons team member working on the 3 D images of Ultima Thule. He created a left and right stereo image pair based on these initial two LORRI images - see below.

“The Prize !! For those of us who waited with bated breath for the Ultimate Stereo of Ultima Thule ...,” Brian May wrote on his social media pages. 

Dr. Brain May, Queen lead guitarist also plays a science role in the New Horizons mission as a team member working on the 3 D images of Ultima Thule. He created a left and right stereo image pair based on these initial two LORRI images. Released at the Jan. 3, 2019 media briefing at JHU APL. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

I spoke with Brain May at a pre-flyby JHU APL briefing about how using 3D imagery greatly helps increase public awareness and support for space exploration and science. 

Dr. Brain May, Queen lead guitarist and New Horizons team member and Dr. Ken Kremer discuss 3D imaging of the planets and Ultima Thule holding his 3D glasses – at JHU APL pre-flyby media briefing Dec. 31, 2019. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com/spaceupclose.com

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage direct from JHU APL.

Watch for Ken’s continuing onsite coverage of NASA, SpaceX, ULA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and more space and mission reports direct from the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.

Stay tuned here for Ken's continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news: www.kenkremer.com –www.spaceupclose.com – twitter @ken_kremer – email: ken at kenkremer.com

Dr. Kremer is a research scientist, journalist and photographer based in the KSC area.

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